Culture Editor Ilina Jha reviews Enigmata by Joseph Kay, praising the author’s fun and challenging riddles, as well as the brief history and cover design
Enigmata is the self-published passion project of Joseph Kay. Following, as he puts it, ‘in the tradition of Symphosius, Aldhelm, & Tolkien,’ Kay has written one hundred enigmata for eager readers to solve.
Kay provides an introduction to enigmata, noting that the term is ‘just a fancy word for riddles.’ His brief history traces the enigmata from Sophocles and Symphosius, the latter of whom was the first to write riddles under the title of aenigmata, through to the Anglo-Saxon Latin and Old English writers of the 7th and 8th centuries, Jane Austen’s charades in Emma, and J. R. R. Tolkien’s riddles in The Hobbit. Kay explains how Tolkien inspired his love of enigmata, as well as outlining how the basic premises behind his own riddle collection are inspired by Tolkien and his predecessors—all the answers are single words only and can only be objects or concepts that would have existed in the early medieval period.
The enigmata themselves are difficult enough to get your brain working, but not so hard as to drain all fun from the exercise
The enigmata themselves are difficult enough to get your brain working, but not so hard as to drain all fun from the exercise. Being as they are ‘lyrical riddles,’ all the enigmata are also short, rhyming poems, making them fun and memorable. Furthermore, the cover of the book is illustrated beautifully. The medieval-inspired edge patterning emphasises Kay’s debt to Tolkien and adds a quality feel, while the dark brown cover provides a sense of mystery and invokes Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth.
Kay has also created a website to accompany Enigmata. Wishing to provide more details than could be provided in the book, Kay has written an expanded history of enigmata on the website. Additionally, although the answers to the riddles are contained in the book, the website allows you to check your potential answer to see if it is right – and, crucially, the website will tell you if it’s wrong without revealing the right answer to you. Therefore, you can keep working away and guessing until you either give up or reach the correct answer. Furthermore, the website allows you to try the first five riddles of the book for free—a perfect way to test out Kay’s riddling skills and see if Enigmata is for you.
A fun, challenging collection of poetic riddles from a hard-working debut author
Overall, Enigmata is a fun, challenging collection of poetic riddles from a hard-working debut author. Whether you’re a fan of Tolkien, a dedicated puzzle-solver, or just interested in owning a book with a gorgeous cover (let’s face it, we’ve all been tempted to buy books for the cover alone), Enigmata is for you.
(Enigmata was published in March 2024 and is available from Etsy and Amazon.)
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